The ramblings of a pilgrim through time, space, and life.

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Jamaica

It is time I added another update for the blog. Many interesting things are happening in life. Last Saturday the car passed 200,000 miles on the way to Washington. We celebrated by having all the front seals and head gasket replaced on Wednesday. That put us out a good $400. Sure has been a good car. Amanda said one of the mechanics told her about a car that had just come in which had 640,000 miles. I sure hope this little Camry gets that many miles. It has been worth the cost so far.

We purchased a vacuum recently. That is a great thing. This apartment had just enough fine dust that I was nearly constantly sneezing. I don’t have allergies, I don’t have problems with dirt, but somehow fine dust blown around by the fan just makes my nose attempt self-destruction. My record so far is 12 sneezes in a row. I did not set that this week, but that is my record. I have no hopes of attempting it again, hence the vacuum.

I received a phone call from a Mr. Frank Overfelt yesterday. His mother is Vay Amanda Carlisle. She was born in 1900 and passed away in 1962. She married more than once, but eventually to Mr. Ira Overfelt. However, this good man, Frank, went to the Salt Lake Temple to see what he could do in relation to family history for his mother. The temple told him it had not been done been submitted by a Mr. Paul Ross. They went on to give him my address and phone number. It had my Idaho number and they called and visited with Jan. She gave him my cell phone and he wasted no time in contacting me. Before I go on, I try to make sure that all those for whom I submit to the temple are within the guidelines. I admit I let that slide a little bit where I know the descendants are not LDS. The principle is that if they were born in the last 95 years, you do not do their temple work. Mrs. Vay was born 107 years ago so I was not too worried about it. But Mr. Overfelt called wanting to know why his mother’s family history had been done. Luckily for him, very little had been done on the card and I called the Boise Temple and had it cancelled. I let him know he should have a free and clear light to go ahead. Now I just have to hunt down that card, wherever in the world it is! I surely hope somebody doesn’t try to do another ordinance on it or I will have the temple calling me with a few kind, direct words. I really enjoy family history, I enjoy seeking people out, but I feel bad when I step on other’s toes. But I was well within guidelines and Mr. Overfelt should not have waited so many years to do the work. Interestingly, he sealed his parents in 1979 but did not have his mother’s work completed beforehand. I hope the temple doesn’t call him wanting an explanation like they did once to me!

Amanda and I received a letter in the mail this week with a check for $10,000 from Capital One. It was one of those write your own loan scenarios. With us looking at the purchase of a car, it was a very tempting offer. We soon realized we could go to the bank and probably get half the interest rate. It was hard to shred that check for such a large amount. We continue to pay off our debts and prepare for the future. Amanda has made enough now she can pay for her $900 pair of glasses for dental hygiene. Now she just has to make enough for the service trip to Jamaica to help poor people with their teeth (If you wish to donate, I do have a paypal account! Feel free to send $5 or $50.)

Work continues well. I am becoming more confortable navigating the tedious screens and pages of 20 year old DOS based program. But hey, if nobody can come up with a more reliable program, why change? I do believe there is probably a program out there, but BOA isn’t willing to spend the money on it. Until then I learn the codes and pages and then do the mortgages on top of it. I am becoming quite a bit more comfortable there as well. So much, I went through 25 new loans on Friday. I think that is quite the achievement. I will have this mortgage business all sorted out by the time I am done.

Well, it is Sunday, it is naptime, and I am surely in need of it. I was assigned to teach Family History to the Elder’s Quorum today. It went alright but I was very short on time. I generally felt the lesson went well but I didn’t get to drive some of the points home as directly as I would have wanted. Leave no doubt, they definitely know I feel passionately about the topic and that family history is a requirement for them now in their lives. I drove around for a half hour handing out new Home Teaching Assignments. Caught them all home but one and he is my companion so I am covered there.